


I just wanted to have a nice afternoon, not another family drama! (And I certainly didn't want my family finding out about how I was bullied as a kid...)

by Mademoisellesnowflake



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Charles is done with everybody, Erik almost loses his sight, Fluff, Gen, He doesn't really want to talk about it, Hurt/Comfort, Kurt is a delight, Magda is super, Peter Needs a Hug, Peter just wanted to have a good day, Peter was bullied in school, Post-X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), So is Peter's sister, This became a bit long, and helpful, dadneto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-17
Updated: 2016-06-17
Packaged: 2018-07-15 16:51:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7230724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mademoisellesnowflake/pseuds/Mademoisellesnowflake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peter Maximoff's childhood wasn't exactly the nicest and he doesn't really like talking about it. In fact, it doesn't even bother him. Not until Erik Lehnsherr accidentally hears him mentioning his not-so-nice childhood. And his mom somehow appears into Charles' castle. Yeah. That kind of bothers Peter when all he wanted was to spend a leisure day in kitchen and be distracted by Kurt and other people.</p><p>He really didn't want to talk about the bullying.</p><p>And Erik wasn't supposed to find out he was Peter's dad like this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I just wanted to have a nice afternoon, not another family drama! (And I certainly didn't want my family finding out about how I was bullied as a kid...)

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was born when I had read too much fanfiction of Peter Maximoff and wanted to write my own... (In other words, I was running out of fics...) This story combines my weird-ish headcanons and ideas my friend and I threw around until they snowballed into a fic. I'm not too content with the writing since it really dragged out but I hope you will like it even a bit! Also I'm not too knowledgeable about the comics so all the knowledge I have is from my friend :'D
> 
> Also please tell me if there should be a trigger warning, I'm not sure whether or not the stuff here should have a warning on it...

It had been three weeks since Apocalypse had been defeated. Losses had been great and most frustrating seemed to be Peter’s usage of his leg. (“You heal fast so I assume it will heal soon, Peter!” Hank had said.) He understood fully well that his leg would heal but by God, it was so frustrating! It had been three weeks. Three weeks and he still had to use those cursed crutches to _walk_! How would he ever survive if he needed those for another week? Everything felt so slow to him, how would he ever survive?

Since Peter was bored to death, he decided he should read something. While going through professor Xavier’s (quickly renewed) library, he encountered a book about different religions and remembered how the professor had mentioned that Erik was Jewish. Peter somehow managed to get the book down from the shelf and he started walking to the kitchen where he met Kurt. The blue mutant smiled politely at Peter from where he was sitting and drinking tea.

“Do you want tea?” Kurt asked as Peter sat across him. “I think I made a little too much of it…”

“Sure, why not”, Peter answered while trying to put his crutches down without making too much noise. “So, you’re already better, huh? I hear that that transportation thing of yours consumes a lot of energy so you must have been terribly tired after transporting all of us away from that plane.”

“Oh, yes”, Kurt said with a slightly wider smile. “I’m already feeling much better, thank you. Resting has helped me.”

“That’s great to know”, Peter laughed and flashed a wide smile to Kurt who handed a steaming cup of tea to Peter.

“And what about you?” Kurt asked. “How is your leg faring?”

“According to Hank, it’s already much better”, Peter said and opened the book. “He says that the bone is well in its place and should heal perfectly fine if I don’t put too much strain on it. It’s just so damn frustrating to not be able to run around…”

“So you like running?” Kurt asked.

“Sure”, Peter laughed. “I mean, that’s what I do. I’m fast and time goes slower for me than others…”

“What do you mean by that?” Kurt asked with a frown.

“Well, it basically means that things that are normal speed for you are slow for me”, Peter explained. “And things that are normal speed for me are really fast for you. So if I talked at my normal speed, you wouldn’t understand anything.”

“Could you say something at your normal speed?” Kurt asked with a mischievous grin.

“Sure”, Peter said. His mouth seemed to blur for a second and a jumbled voice reached Kurt’s ears.

“What did you say?” Kurt asked.

“I said ‘I’m bored and want to run around the mansion but Hank keeps prohibiting that’, didn’t you hear?”, Peter said while trying to suppress a smile and almost fell down as he started laughing right away.

“That was quite fast”, Kurt laughed, making Peter laugh even louder. “What? Am I being funny somehow?”

“You’re a delight, Kurt”, Peter hiccupped. “I mean, ‘quite fast’? Kurt, I can move in supersonic speed and you call me ‘quite fast’? This would make such a great joke…”

“I’m sorry but what does ‘supersonic’ mean?” Kurt asked, trying the strange word in his mouth.

“Oh, it means the speed of the sound”, Peter explained, sitting up straight. “At least that is what I think it means.”

“You think?” Kurt asked. “Does that mean you are not sure what it means?”

“Yeah”, Peter answered. “My mom isn’t a native English speaker but she decided to teach me and my twin English so I’m not always sure of the words… She also taught me and my twin Romani language since she is a Romani and so on. I haven’t spoken it in ages so I don’t really understand it anymore…”

“You don’t seem like a Romani”, Kurt said, tilting his head.

“It’s the skin colour, right?” Peter laughed. “We don’t all have dark skin and black hair. It’s the same with us mutants. Usually you can’t tell a mutant and a human apart.”

“I’m sorry”, Kurt whispered, his eyes widening.

“It’s alright”, Peter told. “I’ve had a lot worse things said to me, really.”

“What do you mean?” Erik’s sleepy voice asked behind Peter.

“Hi there, Magnets!” Peter greeted “Slept in again, huh? It’s, what, one in the afternoon, isn’t it? How late did you go to sleep?”

“I think it was at 4 A.M”, Erik mumbled as he started making coffee. “Don’t give me that look, kid, Hank needed me to do some plane lifting at night…”

“Plane lifting?” Kurt asked. “But how can one person lift a plane?”

“Kid, I can control metal”, Erik sighed. “I didn’t do it with my bare hands…”

“That makes sense”, Kurt whispered, his German accent getting thicker. “It would be weird if one man could lift an aeroplane alone…”

“That’s right”, Erik said and took a sip of his coffee. He sighed and rubbed his temples. “Now, you silver kid, what did you mean when you told that worse things have been said to you?”

“Name’s Peter”, Peter sighed sounding annoyed. “And it wasn’t that big of a deal. The kids at my school thought I looked weird and they threw a lot of insults at me. Didn’t really enjoy that but at least they didn’t hit me or anything.”

“You’re lying”, Erik said with a frown. “I see it from your expression. Tell me what really happened.”

“Fine, they did punch me few times”, Peter told angrily. His arms shook uncontrollably but no one could really see it since they moved faster than sound would. Distantly he heard a car driving up to the driveway in front of the school. “I never told anyone since it didn’t feel like that big of a deal, okay?”

“Well tell us, then”, Erik said. “Sometimes talking helps after this kind of things. Trust me, kid, I’ve got things out of my chest with talking.”

“Name’s still Peter”, Peter mumbled. “Fine, it might not have been not a big deal but I couldn’t tell anyone. It wasn’t like the teachers cared about me anyway. I was just the weird hyperactive kid with strange hair. You know, teachers _hate_ hyperactive kids… So I didn’t really ask for help when I was being bullied.”

“What about your mother?” Erik asked. “Surely she could have helped you, couldn’t she?”

Peter shook his head miserably. “I wasn’t allowed to tell her”, he whispered. “The other kids said they’d hurt Wanda – my twin – if I said anything… And she was already having it too tough, she was having headaches and her powers were manifesting… It wouldn’t have been right for her at all…”

“But it was not right for you either”, Kurt piped up. “Pain is always pain and no one should inflict it on another.”

“I agree with the blue kid”, Erik said and sat down next to Peter, patting his shoulder. “It’s not good to keep pain inside you or you will turn into a person like me.”

“My name is Kurt Wagner, Herr Lehnsherr!” Kurt told.

“So I will turn into a murderous guy, huh?” Peter asked. “Sometimes I almost wish I had had the courage to at least punch them back once…”

“Peter?” a female voice asked right outside the kitchen. “Are you in there?”

A middle-aged woman walked into the kitchen, followed by a teenaged girl who had almost red brown hair and was wearing a black hooded sweater with a dark purple shirt underneath and black skinny jeans with black boots covering them halfway up. The girl’s eyes were on Peter for a moment and then they turned to Magneto.

“You’re the mutant from TV!”

“Mom?” Peter asked as he recognised the women. “Stella? What are you two doing here?”

“Magda?” Erik breathed. “What…? Is this silver kid your _son_?”

“Name’s Peter!” Peter sighed. “Look, I can spell it out to you: P-E-T-”

“Yes, he is my son”, Magda answered coolly. “And you might want to know that you are his father.”

“What?” Erik exclaimed while Peter motioned the young girl – Stella – to come where he sat.

“How do you always get into family drama like this, Pete?” Stella sighed. “And who is this blue friend of yours?”

“This is Kurt Wagner”, Peter said, motioning to Kurt who shyly waved at Stella. “And this isn’t exactly my f-OW Stella, don’t sit on my lap, my leg’s broken!”

“What?” Magda asked from the doorway and swiftly walked to Peter. “Where did you break your leg?”

“You might not believe this, mom”, Peter said, trying to make his tone light, “but there was this huge and ancient mutant who kicked my leg so hard that it broke… And before you ask, my other leg was sort of tied into the ground so I couldn’t really just run away like I usually do.”

“This is like your elementary and middle school all over again”, Magda muttered. “Peter, please tell me the truth, I won’t be angry.”

“H-hey, this time I’m telling the truth!” Peter exclaimed. “Magnets and Kurt can tell you that it’s true, right, guys?”

“That is correct!” Kurt told and tried to look confident under Magda’s imposing glare. “Although I personally didn’t see it happen…”

“It’s true, Magda”, Erik said, trying to suppress a smile. “Your son’s leg was broken by the oldest and most powerful mutant in the history.”

“And you didn’t try to stop that mutant?” Magda exclaimed. “What kind of father are you? Did you just stand back while your son was hurting? Where were your mutant powers when your son needed you?”

“Mom”, Peter said quietly, “to tell the truth, he didn’t know I was his son back then…”

“That’s right”, Erik said, raising both of his hands. “Up until now I thought that my whole family was dead.”

“Mom, don’t fry him with your gaze”, Stella said. “He’s got enough to think of even without your death glare directed at him…”

“Fine”, Magda sighed and sat down next to Kurt. “So, Peter, what did you mean when you said you wished that you would have punched someone? You’ve never been violent so where did that come from?”

“Mom, can’t we talk about that later?” Peter asked quietly. “Don’t you want to meet the professor or something?”

“I need a _break_ before meeting him”, Magda snorted and massaged her temples. It would have been funny to Peter to see how similar his parents were if his heart wasn’t trying to jump out of his chest. “I want to know why my kind son suddenly wants to harm someone. Peter. Please tell me.”

“Well”, Peter started and bit his lip. “You remember the times when I came home bruised and told you these wild stories how a dinosaur had run after me?” Magda nodded and reached out to hold Peter’s hand. “I was making all that up…”

“I figured out as much”, Magda told with a sad smile on her lips. “What actually happened back then?”

“There were these kids at my school who didn’t really like me”, Peter told slowly. “Usually they just insulted me and so on, that wasn’t so bad. But every day after school, they would come to me and then they would get violent… First I tried to fight back but then they figured out that if they told me that they’d hurt Wanda, I wouldn’t fight back at all.”

Magda drew in a sharp breath and Stella sat down next to Peter, on the seat Erik had been sitting on until Magda had appeared into the kitchen. Magda held her son’s hand even tighter, hoping it would help him even a bit.

“They took my lunch sandwiches and lunch money and so on”, Peter told. “You remember that one time I passed out from hunger on sixth grade? That was when they’d taken my lunch money too many times in a row and my powers had just started manifesting… Honestly I never want to feel my blood sugar crashing again like that, I felt like I’d die… I was really scared and guess what the guys told me the following day? They just laughed at me but at least they let me keep my lunch that day… A week after that they forced me to kiss a girl they called ‘nerdy’ because she had said she hadn’t kissed anyone before… God that girl must hate me now…”

“But you were forced to do it”, Magda protested. “She shouldn’t -”

“Everyone thought I was a part of that gang because they were always all over me”, Peter whispered. “I tried to apologise her, I left a note and some chocolate into her locker but I don’t think she forgave me… I’m just… thankful that Wanda found out what was going on and stopped the bullies…”

“Oh my god”, Magda whispered. “So that’s why she attacked those teenagers… And she was almost sent to a mental asylum…”

“You almost let your child be sent to a metal asylum?” Erik asked. “What in the world goes in your head, Magda?”

“I’d never send her away!” Magda retorted, her voice rising in anger. “We moved away the following day, I paid all the kids’ doctors and made sure we were all safe! I’d never let anyone take Wanda or Pietro away just because she can move things around with her thoughts and he is fast! And Wanda is your child too, she and Peter are twins!”

Magda had stood up and was facing Erik even though the man was good few inches taller than her and could easily hurt her if he wanted to. They glared at each other and it felt to Peter that the temperature had dropped at least by five degrees.

“Then why”, Erik asked coolly, “did you never ask your son why he was so bruised? Why did you never make him tell you what had happened?”

“I tried”, Magda hissed. “Do you not think I asked him millions of times? Do you really think I didn’t go to his school and ask every possible person there why he was so bruised? I did and the only answer I got was that ‘boys are just boys’! Every teacher told me that Peter was just playing with the other kids!”

“Then why didn’t you press harder?” Erik asked. “If you had pressed hard enough, he’d told you!”

“I tried to!” Magda shouted, poking Erik’s chest with each word. “Do you think I enjoyed seeing my son coming home all bruised up, starting to cry when I asked about it but still refusing to tell me? I tried my best, Erik! Every night I was afraid that someone would take him away from me because they’d think I was abusing him! I was so scared that someone would hurt him so bad that he would start hurting himself! When his blood sugar crashed, I thought he would die! It’s torture, Erik, when you see your child bruised every day and you fear that he will die because he won’t tell you what is wrong. God, when I found out that Douglas had been hurting him, I could have murdered that man… I would have killed him and then myself if I hadn’t realised that my children needed me…”

The next thing Erik realised was that Peter had grabbed one his crutches and that he was standing on top of the stairway as he heard a soft yelp of surprise while Peter seemed to fall backwards in slow-motion. Erik turned around and tried to catch his son but it was too late as he fell down the stairs and hit his head on the wall with a sickening crack. Erik ran down the stairs and knelt next to his son who was trying to crawl away, most likely back to the kitchen.

“Shh, don’t move, Peter, you hurt your head”, Erik soothed and held Peter’s shoulders while gently trying to lift his almost panicking son up. “Just breathe, we’ll get Hank to check up on you…”

“Have to get back there”, Peter whispered, tears forming in his eyes. “Have to apologise… Didn’t realise how much she was hurting…”

On that precise moment Kurt appeared next to Peter and Erik and grabbed their arms. On the next second they were in Professor Xavier’s study, the professor himself almost jumping a few feet into the air on their arrival.

“Bloody hell!” he exclaimed. “What is going on?”

“Peter is hurt!” Kurt explained frantically. “He’s hit his head; you have to help him, professor!”

“Oh god”, Charles breathed and wheeled his wheelchair around his desk to reach Erik who was trying to hold his frantically squirming son. “Please help Peter on that sofa, Erik, he needs to be examined.”

Erik hoisted Peter up fairly easily and gently placed him on the sofa while Charles mentally called for Hank to come upstairs. He then proceeded to wheel himself next to Peter, almost deliberately trying to wheel on Erik’s toes since it seemed to Charles that Erik had caused all the mess again. (That wouldn’t even surprise Charles; Erik had caused so many terrible things in the past that Peter getting hurt wouldn’t surprise anyone, which again Charles found very sad in his own way. He had hoped that the two would have a bit more civilised relationship.)

“What happened, Peter?” Charles asked quietly, looking at the boy’s tear-stained face. “What on Earth caused all this?”

“Look?” Peter whispered and pointed at his temple. “I don’t want to explain it for the third time…”

“Are you sure?” Charles asked, looking worried. Peter only nodded shakily and squeezed his eyes shut.

oOo

_“Oi Maximoff!” a kid shouted at a seven-year-old Peter as he was trying to leave the classroom unnoticed by the gang that always followed him. The kid was almost twice Peter’s size and just the sight of that kid made Peter shake. “Where do you think you’re going?”_

_“I’m getting my lunch”, Peter whispered. “I didn’t have any breakfast so I need to eat…”_

_“Well, Michael here forgot his lunch money home so we were wondering if you could_ borrow _yours to him”, the same kid laughed. “We really can’t ask anyone else and we most definitely don’t want to ask your sister so you’d do us a favour, wouldn’t you?”_

_“…fine”, Peter mumbled even though his stomach was protesting. He took his backpack off and reluctantly handed over his sandwiches. The other kids’ laughter still rang in his ears as he sat down on the grass and hoped he’d hidden just one more sandwich in his bag._

oOo

_Peter was nine years old and was walking home from school. Wanda was going to her friend’s place so Peter had to walk alone and even though he knew full well that he should have used a detour, he wanted to get home as soon as possible since he needed food. He was starving and wasn’t paying attention until he realised that he’d bumped into one of his bullies._

_“Well hello there, Peter”, the kid said. “Didn’t see you there at all… Where were you going?”_

_“Home”, Peter said quietly. He’d figured out that the less he said, the better chances he’d had to end up bruised as little as possible._

_“Can we maybe come over?” the oldest kid asked. “I hear that your mom is rich and all.”_

_“No”, Peter whispered. “Mom is sick at home; I can’t take visitors home now…”_

_“Well, that’s too bad”, the kid said. “We just got to have our fun here then…”_

_He pushed Peter back with such a force that Peter stumbled backwards and bumped into another bully. All the kids laughed at him and hit and pushed him around until he fell on the ground. When he didn’t stand up, the oldest kid kicked him few times and the crouched down next to Peter._

_“If you tell anyone what happened here”, he whispered to Peter, “my big brother will come to your house and rape your mother and sister. Keep quiet, you freak, if you don’t want your mom or sister to get hurt.”_

_As the bullies left Peter alone, he could only tremble and cry quietly._

oOo

_Peter was ten years old and had come home with his face full of bruises again. Magda’s heart had almost stopped when she saw her son with all those bruises and his lip bleeding._

_“Peter!” she exclaimed and he winced. “What on Earth happened to you?”_

_“A mammoth chased me!” Peter told. “It was really fast so I needed to hide so it wouldn’t catch me but I fell down. And then there was this scary guy who could control metal and he chased me too!”_

_“Peter, there aren’t people who can control metal”, Magda sighed and started wiping Peter’s face with a wet towel. “Tell me what really happened.”_

_“There are!” Peter insisted, tears forming in his eyes. “You told me so yourself! And it’s true, he chased me through all the alleyways! But I was brave and didn’t cry!”_

_“Oh Peter”, Magda whispered and hugged her son who had started sobbing quietly. “Why don’t you tell me what really happened?”_

_“It’s true!” Peter wailed. “I’m not lying, mom, it’s true!”_

oOo

_Peter was twelve years old, sitting in his classroom, not having eaten anything in hours. Everything seemed to be moving really slowly and he couldn’t concentrate at all. the edges of his mind were hazy and he was feeling oh so cold._

_How could anything seriously feel that cold?_

_The teacher was casting annoyed glances at Peter and frowning at how the boy bounced his leg but Peter honestly couldn’t stop. His heart was beating way too fast and everything felt somehow wrong. Maybe he really should have fought the bullies this time when they took his lunch money. His stomach was so empty and he was sweating even though he was freezing at the same time._

_If the situation hadn’t felt so bad, Peter would have laughed at the fact that he was sweating and freezing at the same time._

_Suddenly he couldn’t see the blackboard at all. He could hear distant voices calling him but the only thing could feel was that he was falling,_

_falling,_

_falling…_

oOo

_“You told her!” the leader of the group of bullies accused Peter. “You told your mother about us!”_

_Peter was fourteen years old and being held down on the ground by the biggest and scariest of the bullies. He was desperately trying to get away from the bully._

_“I didn’t, I swear I didn’t!” Peter shouted back. “I’ve never told her anything! I didn’t tell her even when her new husband was beating me!”_

_“Then why did the teacher tell me to not bully you anymore?” the bully shouted. “I saw you mother at school yesterday evening; you must have told her!”_

_“I haven’t told her!” Peter yelled in desperation. “I never told anything!”_

_“You know, guys”, the bully said quietly. “I think this one needs to have a lesson on why he must listen to us, doesn’t he?”_

Oh no _, Peter thought._ This can’t end well…

_“You know, I’ve wondered what it feels like to kiss someone”, the bully laughed. “This guy always screams and cries like a little girl so surely kissing him can’t be that different from kissing an actual girl…”_

No, no!

_The older kid leaned in to try to kiss Peter but suddenly the kid wasn’t holding Peter down anymore. Suddenly Peter’s sight was filled with red and he could only hear angry screaming that sounded like Wanda. He turned to look at the source of the screaming and indeed did see his younger twin sister shooting some kind of red magic from her hands. Peter forced himself up and gathered his belongings and ran to Wanda. He then proceeded to grab Wanda in his arms and **ran**._

_Before either of them realised, they were back on the front yard of their home, Wanda looking nauseous and Peter trembling again. He was so terrified of what had happened that he sped inside the house and straight to the bathroom and threw up._

oOo

_Peter was sixteen years old and was trying to sleep when he started hearing loud shouting coming from downstairs. He got up from his bed and opened the door enough to hear what was being said. Across the corridor he could see Wanda doing the same._

_“You hurt my son!” Peter’s mother screamed. Peter’s heart stopped for a second before he heard his mother continuing: “Don’t you think I didn’t see you tonight! How long has this been going on?”_

_“He’s a freak, Magda, he deserves it!” Douglas’ voice retorted. “He and Wanda are both freaks and the only reason I haven’t laid a hand on Wanda is because she would kill me as soon as I try!”_

_“You monster!” Magda screamed. “How can you call a child a_ freak _? They’ve never done anything bad to you! Peter **looked up** to you!”_

_From the corner of his eye, Peter saw a three-year-old Stella walking towards the stairway, dragging her stuffed rabbit behind her. Before he realised what he was doing, he had sped in front of Stella and taken her into his room._

_“Why are mom and dad fighting?” Stella asked._

_“Shh, I don’t know but if it’s important, they’ll tell us tomorrow morning”, Peter whispered. “Now, what do you say if I let you sleep in my bed tonight?”_

_As Peter lay awake moments later with Stella tucked safely next to him, he heard one loud crash and then nothing. The next morning Douglas was gone and Magda looked like she had aged twenty years in one night._

oOo

“Bloody hell!” Charles cursed as he finally pulled away from Peter’s memories. He had just seen years’ worth of bullying, abuse, and situations that he could only consider as assault and experiences bordering on non-consensual sexual acts. And last but not least he had seen Peter falling down the stairs, unable to do anything. It would be a lie if Charles said his heart didn’t break for the poor mutant.

“What is it?” Hank asked from Peter’s side as he carefully examined the silver-haired mutant.

“How could they?” Charles whispered, sounding almost murderous. “How could anyone hurt a child like that?”

“What do you mean?” Erik asked, while Magda covered her mouth with her hand. “Did he leave something out while telling us?”

“I just saw years’ worth of memories, Erik”, Charles explained. “He could never have told all of that…”

Peter was stubbornly not looking at Charles and instead had buried his face halfway into the pillow his head rested on and crossed his arms over his chest. Charles wheeled back to Peter’s side, obviously having been removed from there by Hank who otherwise would not have had enough space to examine Peter. Without giving much thought to what he was doing, Charles hoisted himself up from his wheelchair and sat down on the edge of the sofa Peter was currently occupying. Peter looked up to the professor and suddenly realised that he was being lifted into a sitting position and embraced by Charles.

“You’re safe Peter”, Charles breathed. “You will never again have to live through things like that. Never again.”

“What is going on, Charles?” Hank asked. “I mean, if Peter doesn’t mind me asking.”

“‘S okay”, Peter mumbled shakily into Charles’ shoulder. Charles was fairly sure that the kid was crying again silently.

“When Peter was young, he was being bullied at school”, Charles told. “Honestly, it was bordering on abuse, really. And before you ask, he wasn’t allowed to tell his family what was going on. The kids were threatening to rape his mother and sister if he told anyone what he had to go through… His twin eventually found out about it and almost killed the bullies when she realised that the bullies had been the reason he always got home so bruised….”

Magda drew in a sharp breath while Stella sat down behind Peter and hugged him.

“That’s inhumane!” Hank exclaimed. “Peter was a child, how could anyone hurt him?”

“People do terrible things to each other”, Erik said calmly, although his voice held a murderous undertone. “Those kids should be held responsible for what they did.”

“Erik not now”, Charles muttered while Peter’s trembling increased. “We can talk about this later.”

“This is about my son!” Erik roared. Before he could continue it seemed that a sphere of light exploded in front of Erik’s face. The mutant fell backwards with a yelp of surprise and covered his eyes. “My eyes!”

“Ta-da”, Stella said quietly from behind Peter.

“Stella?” Magda exclaimed. “Oh god I thought you could only show other people lights, not make them explode…”

“It’s alright, mom”, Stella said and hugged Peter even tighter. “That guy will be fine. I think Pete needs to talk to you…”

Magda made her way to Peter’s side while Hank helped Charles back to his wheelchair so Magda could take his place. She sat in front of Peter who was stubbornly staring at his lap as if staring at his lap would fix everything that had happened. Instead of trying to force her son to talk, Magda started combing her fingers through Peter’s messy hair.

“You’re safe now Pietro”, she whispered. “You don’t have to talk about it anymore… Thank you for telling us what had been going on… You were really brave; I wish I could have helped you…”

“It’s alright”, Peter whispered. “Could I just sleep now? My head really hurts for some reason…”

“Of course you can”, Magda said gently and cupped Peter’s cheeks. “Please believe me when I tell you that you and your sisters are the most amazing people ever and I would never, ever exchange you for anyone else. I know what your stepfather told you and none of it was true. Your powers are a gift and I will protect with all I can.”

Peter only nodded tearfully and gave his mother a quick hug. He then fell backwards onto the pillows, only giving Stella five seconds to get out of his way.

“Pete”, Stella whispered. “Can you open your eyes for a second? I wanna show you something.”

Peter opened one of his eyes and looked at Stella with the most suspicious look he could get. Stella grabbed his hand and motioned him to look around. His eyes widened when he realised that instead of seeing only the room and its occupants, he was seeing the people illuminating with different-coloured lights. His mother was pure white, Erik and Charles were light yellow, Hank had a light orange streak to his yellow and Kurt was purplish-red.

“Holy cow”, Peter whispered. “This can’t be true… This is the most beautiful gift ever, Stella, I really…”

“Shh, sleep now”, Stella grinned. “You’ll feel better that way.”

“Yeah”, Peter mumbled and snuggled himself into the pillows.

“Did you show him, Stella?” Magda asked quietly. Stella nodded and smiled and turned to look at Charles.

“We kind of forgot to tell you, professor”, she started explaining, “that originally we came here since we realised that I have some weird kind of power. It doesn’t do much, really, most of the time it’s just that I can show other people what people feel or think about them; I just need to touch someone’s skin and they see people illuminated by lights of different colours. Pure white means love of some kind; can be platonic, romantic, or familiar while light yellow is someone being proud of you, orange means annoyance with you and red means admiration while purple is having a crush; I don’t really know why having a crush isn’t the same as love…”

“That’s an amazing gift, dear”, Charles said as his face seemed to light up with his tired smile. “Does it have something to do with the sphere of light exploding on Erik’s face?”

“Uh… Yes”, Stella said and blushed. “When I get angry or stressed I may make some light explode accidentally… I must have been so annoyed at that person that I couldn’t really control it.”

“Also sometimes when Stella has nightmares, her room has something akin to fireworks”, Magda told from where she was sitting. “It isn’t dangerous but I had hoped she could come here to study so she could control it better… I will pay for it if there’s some kind of payment you need.”

“There’s no need to pay for education, Mrs. Maximoff”, Charles assured. “As you can see from the castle, I have a bloody huge fortune to spend and quite a lot of insurances as well so that I can make education free for any kid who wants to study here. Stella is more than welcome here and I believe she will do great in her studies and get great friends here. Do you have some kind of strong suit in school, Stella?”

“I like physics really much”, Stella told. “Since a kid, I had been wondering how Pete could go so fast so I borrowed some physics books from the library and understood that I really like it and I kind of got years ahead in it before it even started in school…”

“That sounds quite interesting”, Charles smiled. “I’m a biologist myself. I really hope you will like our school. I have a proposal now: Hank will show you a room and if you have brought any of your belongings with you, you can make the room yours straight away. If you haven’t got any belongings with you, Hank can drive you to Washington and back to gather some.”

“I actually didn’t take anything with me yet so a ride home would be perfect”, Stella said with a grin. “Can you look after Pete during that time? He thinks he’s more mature than he really is…”

“Don’t worry, Stella, I will”, Charles assured her with a laugh. “He’s in good hands; no one will let him get hurt.”

As Stella left with Magda and Hank, Erik let out a breath he had been holding.

“Please don’t make me teach her. Or actually please don’t force me to teach anyone.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this, please consider telling me what you thought of it~  
> (Also I might post some continuation... which will be shorter, I'm not a master of long fics :'D)


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